How To Clean Your AirPods To Improve Their Sound Quality

Apple’s AirPods wireless earphones are impressive in a number of ways, particularly the way they can work completely without wires but still go a whole work day without needing a charge.

One area it is fair to say that they may not excel, however, is in the sheer audio quality department, so you will want to keep them working in tip top condition whenever possible to ensure matters don’t get any worse.

Unfortunately, many people notice that their AirPods do start to deteriorate with use, and that’s likely down to something unfortunate, but unavoidable – ear wax. Thankfully, one Apple Support Communities user may have the answer. The solution comes from a 2014 post on the support forum, with a user noticing that one of their older EarPods was noticeably quieter than the other, another poster suggested a fix, but it is not for the feint of heart.

To fix your sound issue, take a softly bristled clean toothbrush. You can then carefully brush the larger opening of the Earpod. Then, (bear with me) suck on the larger opening until you can feel that you are causing air to come through. Then, brush again. This should solve your issue. The main reason why this has happened is ears with an exesesive [sic] amount of wax that melts into the earbud.

It’s fair to say you are not likely to want to try this on some AirPods, or EarPods that are not your own, that is for sure! Still, if sucking on our $159 earphones can get them back to their brand new state, then so be it. That’s better than putting up with sub-par audio quality out of something that, let’s be honest, doesn’t have an awful lot of that quality to lose in the first place!